Studies on two sites on the periphery of country parks (2017/07/12) (Supplementary)

 

MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): President, the obvious shortage of land in Hong Kong for the provision of housing, community facilities and open space is both a fact and a pressing problem. The Government is duty-bound to develop land with a view to solving the problem. Secretary, over the years, has the Government ever explored the construction, or actually undertaken the building, of housing units or elderly homes on the periphery of country parks? If yes, roughly how much land has been used? Will the Government continue to undertake the relevant studies in the future?

 

SECRETARY FOR DEVELOPMENT (in Cantonese): President, I thank Mr YIU for his supplementary question. As far as I know, before this present invitation was put forward, the Government never made any formal proposal on exploring the use of land on the periphery of country parks for constructing public housing or elderly housing. 

The conduct of such a study was formally put forward for the very first time in a government press release in May this year. It was announced that HKHS would undertake a relevant study. According to the information at hand, the study will cover a total land area of roughly 40 hectares, which is just less than 0.1% of the 40 000 hectares or so of country parks across the territory. As for whether there was any precedent, the answer is no.

 

MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): Will the Government continue to undertake related studies in the future?

 

SECRETARY FOR DEVELOPMENT (in Cantonese): President, it is really difficult to predict what will happen in the future. As for the study this time, we estimate that it may take two years before HKHS can complete its study on the two sites. And, as I have explained clearly, even if the study yields positive findings and the Government decides to proceed with the development of the two sites for constructing public housing or elderly housing, we must still follow all the required statutory procedures. These include town planning procedures, environmental impact assessments, procedures relating to the handling of country park land. We believe that the whole process will take one year to two years to complete.

Therefore, as Members can see, the Government actually needs lots of time in its efforts to work out land development options that are in the interest of the majority people in Hong Kong. I think it is now too early to say whether any further studies will be conducted after completing the study on these two sites.